GE and Ashoka Changemakers are seeking your innovative solutions that will advance economic opportunities for women in MENA, strengthen their families and communities, and enable them to benefit equitably from economic growth.

Three winners of Women Powering Work: Innovations for Economic Equality in the MENA Region will each receive US $25,000 in unrestricted funding to support their innovations. Enter before the early entry deadline (October 2, 2013) to be eligible to win one of two additional cash prizes of US $1,000. The entry period closes on November 6, 2013.

Please read our Welcome Letter to learn more about our search, and visit the Guidelines, Criteria & Prizes page for more information on how to enter.

Connect with us on Facebook and track #womenWork and @changemakers on Twitter for the latest news about the competition.

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After taking out a loan to finance her sister’s trousseax, her father convinced Omayma to sign as a guarantor claiming it was “just a formality.” When he passed away, Omayma was left responsible to pay the price.

Unable to pay back her father’s E£ 7000 (about $1,140), Omayma was sentenced to three years in prison. “He has always been lucky,” Omayma said. “He died and left me the bill to pay – it cost me my freedom and my children too.

As luck would have it, Omayma would soon become journalist Nawal Mostafa’s first success story.

According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, only 14.3% of women in the country participate in the labor force. Lack of social and financial support and restrictions imposed on access and mobility serve as major obstacles for women who want to pursue fulfilling careers. In this landscape, Sabiha Ghani has been a game changer who has redefined the economic space for women in her community. She has fostered initiative and independence by founding the Women Development Foundation Pakistan (WDFP) which supports hundreds of women in starting their own business ventures.

“Women are not making it to the top of any profession anywhere in the world – the numbers tell the story quite clearly,” says Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg in her 2010 TEDx Talk. Sandberg’s advice to women in her New York Times bestseller, “Lean In,” is relevant across the globe: less than half of working-age women worldwide are employed, they are paid less on average than men for the same work, and the chances of rising to the top of a Fortune 500 company are not in a woman’s favor.